About the Author

This site is designed, built, and maintained by Kent Ibbott.

Background

Kent was born in Melbourne, Australia, and currently resides in Miyagi prefecture,
Japan. He arrived in Japan in 1967 as a dependant and junior high school student, and began
attendance at St. Mary's International school in Tokyo. Later college education took
place in California and Massachusetts, USA.

From 1975 through 1985 he was employed at an advertising agency/production house in
Tokyo, starting as a copywriter and eventually working as creative director with a wide
range of clients and products. "Kent International Co. Ltd." was established in 1985 and
has operated independently ever since.

The foundation for a strong background in the technical aspects of sound and music was
built at an early age through his father's business designing and manufacturing
highly-regarded audio equipment in the 50's and 60's. A personal love of the related arts
led to attendance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in the mid-70's, with live and
studio engagements scattered throughout the ensuing years. Photographic skills and
knowledge were absorbed both as an amateur in the darkroom under the stairs and in the
director's chair at countless product shoots for promotional material. A decade as host
of a weekly music and talk show on local FM radio adds familiarity with broadcast
production and programming to the mix.

Kent International offers a broad spectrum of media skills encompassing writing, music,
recording, photography, and voice for narration and broadcast. Writing and
Japanese-to-English translation (creative "transwriting" is a more accurate description)
have been the primary focus for more than thirty years, with other abilities brought into
play as required by individual projects. Expertise in music, sound, and imaging technology
has made Kent International a valuable resource for a number of leading manufacturers in
those fields, for promotion, documentation, and training program development.

On top of this solidly media-centric curriculum vitae Kent is bilingual and, with
more than 40 years experience in Japan, "bi-cultural," able to straddle the chasm between
West and East and actually make some sense of it all.

Awards

Recognition and approval are always appreciated, as are the efforts of the people who
took the time to submit my work for consideration. The awards pictured below are from
the STC (Society for Technical Communication).